As of fall 2011, DCE, Portland and McMinnville campuses are all using BBLearn (BlackBoard 9.1) instead of BlackBoard 8. Here is a summary of some of the important details faculty will need to be aware of.
1. Faculty who wish to copy courses directly from BlackBoard 8 to BBLearn using the course copy methodmay experience unpredictable results in some cases. We know that quizzes and tests copied from 8 over to BBLearn sometimes behave strangely. Students may be able to take the quiz but their grades won't automatically record as they should in the grade book, requiring instructors to manually enter those grades. This usually means the student has exceeded the amount of time allowed for the quiz and this alerts the instructor to this fact - a fix is coming. We also know that when students complete the quiz they are asked to click OK in order to access the grade, but the OK button is greyed out. One work around for this problem is the enable the "My grades" feature so that students can access their grades from that location instead. Of course, faculty will need to alert their students to do this issue. We strongly urge faculty to create their BBLearn courses from scratch, using WebDAV to migrate course materials. Uploading zip files works well for Windows users in the Files area of the Control Panel. For Mac users, not so much. Instead, use WebDAV by setting up a Shared Location (also located in the Files area of the Control Panel). Please contact your BBLearn administrator for help with your migration questions.
2. BlackBoard IM was released recently and serves as a replacement for Wimba Pronto. Not all of the locations in BlackBoard have been updated to include the name change. Blackboard IM works very similarly to Wimba Pronto but small changes have occurred. For instance, users formerly clicked on "Actions" to begin a new group voice chat; now users click on "Tools" instead. We only have access to voice chat at present, not screen sharing, etc.
3. Service Pack 6 has been released and Brett Hardee is testing it on the BBLearn test server. Once it is installed, we will see a host of new features, including gradable rubrics. Here's a list of what we've been told to expect.
4. Until the new text editor tool is available (hopefully before fall 2011 semester), users should use the Mashup tool to copy and past Word content. This prevents problematic Word code from being copied inadvertently into your file. Soon it will be possible to copy Word content without losing Word formatting.
5. If you love using the Chrome browser, fear not, BBLearn Service Pack 6 will support it. As for which browser you should use, our opinions vary and your results may too. For Windows users, the latest versions of Chrome and Internet Explorer seem to work well. Firefox seems to work well but has come out with so many new additions recently that we can't be sure everything works at this point. For Mac users, if a BlackBoard feature in Firefox or Chrome doesn't work, I suggest trying Safari. This works surprisingly often. Jo recommends Firefox for Windows and Safari for Mac; Brett recommends Chrome for both Windows and Mac, and BlackBoard recommends Firefox for both Windows and Mac. BBLearn is a completely new code base, so problems with Java and other browser issues should be greatly reduced.
6. NEW FEATURES! Linfield now has a number of new features available for use with BBLearn, including:
NBC Learn - a repository of videos from MSNBC that you can use in your courses.
Turnitin - Turnitin is now available directly from within BBLearn, and assignments can be graded in the BBLearn grade book. Notice that SafeAssign is available in BBLearn as well, though it is not as robust.
NOOKStudy - NookStudy is a new study aid designed to help students get organized. Faculty can link directly to assignments within NookStudy from BBLearn, and can add PDF and other content for students to use in NOOKStudy.
Linfield owns a copy of Respondus 4 (found in the FDL), which makes test/quiz/survey management much easier in BBLearn. Faculty can easily download, revise, upload and copy using this tool.
SoftChalk 7 has been released, which still develops content very easily that can be used with BBLearn and which now also allows users to create content for ereaders and mobile devices.
BB Mobile Learn 2 is now available for certain cell phones. Features are continually being added and include the ability to upload assignments, participate in discussions, and check grades. Sprint/Android users can use Mobile Learn for free. iPhone, iPad and iTouch users can access Mobile Learn through wireless only for free, or for a fee of cellular service. Palm and BlackBerry are offered only for a fee.
As of fall 2011, DCE, Portland and McMinnville campuses are all using BBLearn (BlackBoard 9.1) instead of BlackBoard 8. Here is a summary of some of the important details faculty will need to be aware of.
1. Faculty who wish to copy courses directly from BlackBoard 8 to BBLearn using the course copy methodmay experience unpredictable results in some cases. We know that quizzes and tests copied from 8 over to BBLearn sometimes behave strangely. Students may be able to take the quiz but their grades won't automatically record as they should in the grade book, requiring instructors to manually enter those grades. This usually means the student has exceeded the amount of time allowed for the quiz and this alerts the instructor to this fact - a fix is coming. We also know that when students complete the quiz they are asked to click OK in order to access the grade, but the OK button is greyed out. One work around for this problem is the enable the "My grades" feature so that students can access their grades from that location instead. Of course, faculty will need to alert their students to do this issue. We strongly urge faculty to create their BBLearn courses from scratch, using WebDAV to migrate course materials. Uploading zip files works well for Windows users in the Files area of the Control Panel. For Mac users, not so much. Instead, use WebDAV by setting up a Shared Location (also located in the Files area of the Control Panel). Please contact your BBLearn administrator for help with your migration questions.
2. BlackBoard IM was released recently and serves as a replacement for Wimba Pronto. Not all of the locations in BlackBoard have been updated to include the name change. Blackboard IM works very similarly to Wimba Pronto but small changes have occurred. For instance, users formerly clicked on "Actions" to begin a new group voice chat; now users click on "Tools" instead. We only have access to voice chat at present, not screen sharing, etc.
3. Service Pack 6 has been released and Brett Hardee is testing it on the BBLearn test server. Once it is installed, we will see a host of new features, including gradable rubrics. Here's a list of what we've been told to expect.
4. Until the new text editor tool is available (hopefully before fall 2011 semester), users should use the Mashup tool to copy and past Word content. This prevents problematic Word code from being copied inadvertently into your file. Soon it will be possible to copy Word content without losing Word formatting.
5. If you love using the Chrome browser, fear not, BBLearn Service Pack 6 will support it. As for which browser you should use, our opinions vary and your results may too. For Windows users, the latest versions of Chrome and Internet Explorer seem to work well. Firefox seems to work well but has come out with so many new additions recently that we can't be sure everything works at this point. For Mac users, if a BlackBoard feature in Firefox or Chrome doesn't work, I suggest trying Safari. This works surprisingly often. Jo recommends Firefox for Windows and Safari for Mac; Brett recommends Chrome for both Windows and Mac, and BlackBoard recommends Firefox for both Windows and Mac. BBLearn is a completely new code base, so problems with Java and other browser issues should be greatly reduced.
6. NEW FEATURES! Linfield now has a number of new features available for use with BBLearn, including:
MAC Users: Your courses will be continue to be automatically populated up to add/drop each semester. You will also continue to need to release your courses so that students can see them.